Monthly Archives: October 2011

Sarah, age 22, and Josh, age 29 from Augusta, Maine visited the Occupy Portland site to support, to listen, and to learn. They are taking it back to the state capitol in Augusta.

After listening to Sarah and Josh, and the other people I have interviewed, I don’t know how anyone can think the people in this movement don’t have a focus, or a mission, or an objective. Seems pretty clear to me.

It is so gratifying to see so many young people who are paying attention and taking their future into their own hands. And why not? The future is theirs and it doesn’t look very bright. And yet, they are full of hope.

Chris Kessler took park in Occupy Maine in Monument Park in Portland. He’s a college graduate with a huge debt. He just wants a simple debt-free life so he’s out protesting against those who have prevented it.

You can see all of my Occupy Maine interviews on my Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhee

On October 20, 2011, Roxanne Quimby apologized to a gathering of about 75 people in E. Millinocket, Maine. The scheduled meeting was to be a Q&A session for E. Millinocket residents. It turned out to be a well-planned ambush by her opponents who came armed with prepared remarks.

Roxanne’s comments in a Forbes magazine article created a firestorm of vicious, personal attacks from hundreds of people who commented on the inflammatory, one-sided article in the Bangor Daily News whose purpose was clearly to create more controversy surrounding Ms. Quimby’s wish to create a new national park in the Maine Woods.

It wasn’t that Roxanne’s remarks about Maine having a very high percentage of old, overweight citizens who are dependent upon government assistance were inaccurate; no one disputes that. What Roxanne was attempting to do was demonstrate that a new park would help diversify the economy in the region badly in need of jobs.

She is only guilty of a lack of judgement in making those comments and not understanding how her opponents would use them against her.

In her response to a sarcastic, opening comment by an elderly gentlemen, Roxanne offered her apology and asked for forgiveness. This public apology from a woman who has been vilified, demonized, and slandered in the Bangor Daily News for months because she wants to give her land to the National Park Service took a great deal of courage.

Roxanne Quimby will be admired for her generous gift of land to the people of the State of Maine and America, for her determination to face her attackers with respect and grace at every turn, and for the humility she displayed in making her public apology.

This whole trumped up affair is more a reflection on the lack of professionalism by the Bangor Daily News, and the character of anonymous slanderers who comment in the BDN.

Michael Moore at his very best….Occupy Wall Street is tens of millions of Americans who are without healthcare, without jobs, without hope for a decent life. It is students with college debt the won’t be able to pay off until their 40. Michael insists that “capitalism” isn’t bad, but it is the greed and selfishness of the 1% who have played a shell game with money at the expense of the middle class who built this country and created our wealth.

All around the globe, untold thousands stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. In Spain, 60,000 turned out. Tens of thousands descended on Times Square in what was a peaceful demonstration.

I sure hope the politicians are taking notice, especially those smug Republicans in Congress who think it is a mob uprising or that WE the People are not angry with their obstructionist behavior and their pandering to the wealthiest among us, Wall Street, and large corporations.

In my previous post for today, I shared Warren Buffett’s recommendation on how we fix Congress. Please read and share.

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best
quotes about the debt ceiling:

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,” he told CNBC. “You just pass a law
that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all
sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only
3 months &8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That
was in 1971…before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less
to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum
of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do
likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the
message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when
they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present &future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system,
and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for
any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans
do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay
will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the
same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American
people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective
1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress
is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen
legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to
work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take
three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it
is time.

Posts navigation

Watch The Trailer

Testimonials

"It was a smashing hit....people were crying and they were clapping at the end.....I handed out the DVD's strategically to key leaders in various Swedish cities, and from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Japan and Mexico.....people passed the hat to send money to the village but I insisted they keep the money towards sending a representative from Sweden to the village ASAP......they loved the music, the story, and the resistance.....many people sent congrats to you....it's was a European opening night showing......5 stars. Add Russia to list of places I sent DVD home with....a man who works directly for Putin."